At 71-69 overall, the 2017 Jackson Generals finished their second straight year with an above- .500 winning percentage in the Southern League, compiling a 34-36 record in the Second Half. The Generals’ offense ended the season leading the league in eight different categories, though roster upheaval in July and August made it tough on manager J.R. House and hitting coach Jason Camilli to sustain Jackson’s early dominance. Pitching coach Doug Drabek’s corps of arms gained some traction down the stretch, as an improved starting rotation helped Jackson to a league- best 16 shutout victories. The Generals missed the playoffs by a few games, though they weren’t eliminated officially until the season’s final week. These are some of their highlights:

(NOTE: These memorable moments from the Second Half are by no means comprehensive—feel free to chip in your own thoughts in the comments below, or Tweet @JacksonGenerals on Twitter with your best memories of the 20th season of pro baseball in West Tennessee! There will also be a “2017 By The Numbers” post coming out soon that highlights many of the interesting statistics and figures from the year.)

After hitting .232 in May, Generals infielder Kevin Medrano rebounded with an outstanding June. Looking to tie Jonathan Rodriguez for the Southern League’s longest hitting streak, Medrano erupted for five hits at Birmingham on Saturday night, driving in a season-high four runs. The five-hit game was the first for a General since Tyler Bortnick in 2015, and it put Medrano in elite company as one of only seven Southern Leaguers to accomplish the feat this season. The five-hit night was the masterstroke on Medrano’s June canvas, wherein he painted a .371 batting average en route to Southern League Player of the Month honors.

Inserted into the starting rotation to begin the Second Half, veteran right-hander Ivan Pineyro faced a former team in his first series and did not disappoint. In trying to even the Jacksonville series at 2-2, Pineyro struck out 12 Jumbo Shrimp hitters in seven scoreless innings, tying teammate Taylor Clarke for the Generals’ best single-game strikeout mark in 2017. Pineyro retired 19 straight hitters in his best stretch, and he came away with the narrowest of 1-0 victories after catcher B.J. Lopez scored from third base on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh. Joey Krehbiel and Gabriel Moya threw perfect eighth and ninth innings, as Moya recorded his 12th save overall and his third in four nights. Pineyro did not walk a batter. Pineyro was honored as the Southern League Pitcher of the Week, his first weekly honor in a seven-year career.

Jamie Westbrook spent the whole month of June on the disabled list, and he came off it wanting to make up for lost time. Westbrook’s solo home run at Tennessee on July 3rd helped propel the Generals to a 4-1 victory, and it bore signs of what was to come in July. Westbrook had hits in 24 of 29 July games, including a 2017 personal-best streak of 10 straight games with a hit. He finished the month with a .320 batting average and 19 RBI, earning internal Double-A Player of the Month honors from the Diamondbacks’ front office. Westbrook also scored his first career outfield assist on July 7th in a 9-6 win over Birmingham. Jamie finished 2017 with his 4th straight season of at least 100 games played and at least 100 hits, one of only seven Generals position players who were on both the Opening Day roster and the 2017 finale roster.

TUESDAY, JULY 4th VS. BIRMINGHAM

Won on the Fourth of July

Brad Keller and the Generals got the win on the Fourth of July. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Hosting a home contest on Independence Day for the first time in eight years, the Generals bested eventual SL Pitcher of the Year Michael Kopech and the Birmingham Barons, 8-2, in front of 4,270. The rain-shortened contest nonetheless featured 11 hits from the Jackson offense, including multiple hits from Kevin Cron, Dawel Lugo, Evan Marzilli, and Galli Cribbs. Brad Keller earned the victory, while the Generals climbed a game ahead of the Barons with the help of Jared Miller’s second save of the year. The Generals finished 2017 with a 7-3 mark against the Barons at The Ballpark at Jackson, the best against any of their North Division opponents.

FRIDAY, JULY 21st AT BIRMINGHAM

A Southpaw Snaps the Skid

Alex Young pitched to a 3.05 ERA in the Second Half. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

After being shut out on back-to-back nights at Regions Field, the Generals offense appeared severely handcuffed by the recent losses of third baseman Dawel Lugo (trade), shortstop Domingo Leyba (injury), and second baseman Kevin Medrano (promotion) in quick succession. In dire need of a win, Alex Young helped Jackson snap a five-game skid. The lefty delivered six scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and one walk while recording a season-high eight strikeouts in a 2-1 Jackson victory. The win was Young’s third in a row and third in the month of July, his best month in 2017. Young threw no fewer than five innings in any of his final ten starts, pitching to an ERA of 2.49 while striking out twice as many batters as he walked. His 2.51 road ERA was the best by any Jackson pitcher with at least 10 games started in 2017.

SATURDAY, JULY 29th VS MOBILE

Atkinson Beats BayBears

Ryan Atkinson led all Diamondbacks minor leaguers with 167 strikeouts in 2017. He will pitch in the Arizona Fall League. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Wearing a slick black-and-blue jersey in appreciation of Shark Week, right-hander Ryan Atkinson struck out six batters in 5.1 innings and allowed one run, good enough to win his Double-A debut vs. Mobile. The victory gave the Generals the series win and continued an unexpectedly successful season for Atkinson, an undrafted free agent who took 13 months off from baseball before being signed by the Diamondbacks in July 2016. In his first full season as a pro, Atkinson struck out 167 batters, more than any other Diamondbacks minor leaguer. With the Generals, he pitched to a 3.22 ERA in seven starts, earning an invitation to play in the prestigious Arizona Fall League in October along with Michael Perez and Victor Reyes.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3rd VS. TENNESSEE

Payamps Dominates Tennessee Completely

Joel Payamps threw a complete game shutout on August 3rd, Jackson’s only CG of the year. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Though Jackson avoided playing any home double-headers through the season’s first four months, rain finally forced the Generals and Tennessee Smokies to play a twin-bill in early August. Right-hander Joel Payamps started the opener, and he made lightning-quick work of a stout Tennessee lineup. Using 84 pitches and a solid mix of fastball, slider, and changeup, Payamps threw Jackson’s first and only complete game of 2017, shutting out the Smokies 4-0 in seven innings while allowing only one hit. Payamps’ CG earned him his first Southern League Pitcher of the Week award, and it kicked off an awesome August, featuring a 2.32 ERA across five games with a 1.00 WHIP and an opponents’ batting average of just. 216.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4th AT CHATTANOOGA

Perez Breaks Moya’s Earned Run Streak

Michael Perez hit .298 with an .835 OPS in 50 Second Half games at Jackson. He will play in the Arizona Fall League. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Facing his former team for the first time since a July 27th trade from Arizona to Minnesota, Chattanooga closer Gabriel Moya earned the save in a 3-1 victory over the Generals. However, Moya’s outing included a solo home run allowed to Jackson catcher Michael Perez, the first earned run allowed by Moya in over three months. Moya, having already earned Relief Pitcher of the Month honors for June and Midseason All-Star accolades as well, would go on to be named a Postseason Southern League All-Star, converting all 24 of his regular season save opportunities (17 with Jackson, 7 with Chattanooga). For Perez, the moment punctuated a rise from the Opening Day backup role to starter, featuring an OPS of .835 in 50 Second Half games with Jackson. Perez would also win “Best Defensive Catcher” recognition in a survey of Southern League coaches by Baseball America, solidifying his best season to date as a 25-year-old minor leaguer.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18th VS. BILOXI

Duncan Nearly No-Hits Shuckers

Frank Duncan narrowly missed becoming the second pitcher in franchise history to throw a no-hitter. (Photo credit: Tyler Springs)

An August addition to the Generals’ rotation, right-hander Frank Duncan stuck to his strengths, and his second start at Jackson very nearly made history. Duncan held a 2-0 lead while carrying a no-hitter into the ninth inning, striking out five Biloxi batters while collecting 12 groundball outs and stroking a single on offense. An infield single and a double in the ninth brought Biloxi within a run and chased Duncan, but Joey Krehbiel preserved the win with a two-out save. Duncan pitched five or more innings in each of his five starts with the Generals, earning an ERA under 4.00 and a groundout/flyout ratio of almost 2:1 (1.92). The near-miss allowed Dave Manning’s July 22, 1999 no-hitter to remain as the only no-hit game in franchise history.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 25th AT PENSACOLA

Herum’s Homer Evens Season Series with Wahoos

Marty Herum held his own at third base, hitting .284 in 43 games after a promotion from High-A Visalia in mid-July. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Jackson failed to score more than four runs in any of their 10 games against Pensacola in 2017, but they did enough to finish the season series 5-5 against the Blue Wahoos. The final meeting was a 0-0 Friday night chess match all the way into the ninth inning. Marty Herum, having gone more than two months without a home run, broke out the big stick with a two-out, two-strike mash to left field that put the Generals ahead 1-0. Herum’s first home run at Double-A proved to be enough for the Generals’ victory, and it revealed the power stroke that may be flashed again next season at Jackson. The 25-year-old third baseman hit .284 in 43 games with the Generals, drilling a team-leading nine doubles in August with a team-high .337 batting average during that time. Herum’s offensive numbers aren’t far from the pace set by Dawel Lugo, who manned third base for Jackson before being traded from Arizona to Detroit in mid-July.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30th VS. CHATTANOOGA

Kevin Cron Wins MVP, Generals Beat Chattanooga

He raised his batting average 61 points from last season. He hit 25+ home runs for the second straight year. He played in a league-high (and franchise record) 138 games, going over four months without a day off to end the year. He is Kevin Cron, and he earned the 2017 Southern League Most Valuable Player award just before the Generals took their second series from Chattanooga in August with 4-0 series finale shutout. (Notably, Cron recorded the walk-off RBI single in the Generals’ 5-4 victory over Chattanooga two nights before.) Cron anchored an offense that led the league in dingers and doubles, and he demolished his previous career high by recording 56 walks, almost twice his 2016 mark. He also led the league in assists at first base (69).

Kevin Cron and Jamie Westbrook celebrate Cron’s 25th home run of the year at Tennessee. Cron led the league in home runs, assists at first base, and games played. (Photo credit: Extra Innings UK)

In tandem with 2016 MVP Tyler O’Neill, Cron becomes a part of the first tandem of players to win back-to-back MVPs for the same franchise in the 21st century. He’s the first to lead the Southern League in home runs in consecutive seasons in more than 40 years, since Jim Obradovich did so in 1975 & 1976. Cron joins Jake Lamb (2014) and Paul Goldschmidt (2011) as the third Diamondbacks minor leaguer to win Southern League MVP in the last seven seasons. The list of Southern League MVPs who are current Major Leaguers also includes Max Kepler (MIN), Marcus Semien (OAK), Evan Longoria (TB), and Joey Votto (CIN).

THURSDAY, AUGUST 31st AT TENNESSEE

Lockhart’s Last Stand

Daniel Lockhart’s 11-pitch at-bat with two outs in the ninth inning kept Jackson alive in an eventual 8-7 win at Tennessee on August 31. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

In 52 previous 2017 games when trailing after eight innings, the Generals were 0-52. Staring at a 5-2 deficit to begin the ninth inning, they still did not flinch, scoring a run to pull within 5-3 with two outs and men on the corners. Daniel Lockhart, a former Tennessee Smokie himself, fell behind 0-2 against Smokies closer Craig Brooks, but he wouldn’t go down. Lockhart fouled off five straight pitches before Brooks threw two balls, evening the count. After another foul to stay alive, Lockhart lined the 11th pitch of the at-bat into left field for an RBI single, drawing Jackson within 5-4. The Lockhart-Brooks duel catalyzed the Generals’ offense, which scored six runs across the final three frames in an eventual 8-7 victory in 11 innings. Starter Tyler Badamo did not factor in the decision, giving up five runs over six innings while striking out 10 Tennessee hitters in what would be his only Double-A start of the year.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th AT TENNESSEE

A Finale You Could Feel

In the season finale, the Generals watched a duel unfold on the mound, as Jackson’s Ryan Atkinson tried to keep Tennessee’s Duane Underwood Jr. from winning his league-best 14th game of the year. Scoreless through three innings, the Generals drew first blood, as Victor Reyes smashed his fourth home run of the year over the right field wall for a 2-0 lead. Having held Tennessee down through six innings, Atkinson belted a two-out, two-run double off the left-center field wall in the seventh, recording his first professional hit in dramatic fashion. The Generals plated two more runs in the eighth, helped by Reyes’ fifth triple of the year and a sacrifice fly by Marty Herum.

Victor Reyes tallied a team high 11 outfield assists in 2017, playing in over 120 games and hitting at least .290 for the third straight season. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Entering the bottom of the eighth with a 6-1 lead, Jackson looked momentarily shaky, as a bases-clearing three-run double by Tennessee’s Yasiel Balaguert brought the Smokies within 6-4. However, Kirby Bellow bore down for the inning’s final two outs, and Josh Taylor finished the game with a scoreless ninth inning. Taylor stranded a pair of leadoff hits by getting three consecutive outs, ending the game with the tying run on base and the winning run at the plate. The save was Taylor’s first of the year, and the win clinched an above-.500 winning percentage for the Generals for the second straight year. Reyes finished with nine total bases in the game, falling a single shy of the cycle. His 13-for-19 effort in the Tennessee series propelled him to being honored as Jackson’s third Southern League Player of the Week in 2017.

Travis Denker (center, with mitt) is greeted by J.R. House (center-left, with forward-facing helmet) after being removed from Game #140 in the bottom of the eighth inning. The 32-year-old Denker homered in his last at-bat of the season in the top of the eighth. (Photo credit: Extra Innings UK)

A special mid-afternoon moment came in the eighth inning, when 32-year-old infielder Travis Denker led off with a solo home run to right field. Denker’s 7th dinger of the year came in his 1,267 professional game between MLB and the minors, giving him 147 jacks in his career. After the Generals took the field for the bottom of the eighth inning, Denker was removed from the game by manager J.R. House, applauded by the Tennessee crowd and hugged by his teammates and coaches. Denker is not officially retired and can still hit, as shown by his .867 OPS in 186 at-bats this season. That said, it was cool to watch Denker—who has never hit a walk-off home run—walk off after a home run in his final at-bat of the season.

So long for now! Opening Night 2018 will be Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 6:05 pm vs. Jacksonville. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Before we turn our backs on 2017, we’d like to say thank you to all the people that have given us feedback and shown interest in the team this year. We’re glad you got to share in the magic of minor league baseball once more! We look forward to seeing you at The Ballpark at Jackson in 2018 or interacting with you online if you can’t make it!

Generals right-hander Brooks Hall was one of four Jackson starters to complete five innings in the series against Montgomery. Hall pitched for the Biloxi Shuckers in 2015 and 2016. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

Shucks!

(You’re laughing, I can tell. No, really, I see you doing it. It’s all good!)

That one-syllable interjection kind of encapsulates both the week gone by and the week ahead for the Jackson Generals (9-5). For the second time in as many weeks, the Generals are leaving town to visit a coastal opponent, matched up with the Biloxi Shuckers (6-8), the Double-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Because the Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks (Jackson’s new parent club) are both National League teams, Saturday will mark the first time the Jackson franchise has batted their pitchers in over a decade. On September 4, 2006, Chicago Cubs farmhand J.R. Mathes threw a complete game victory for the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx at Pringles Park, allowing one run to Chattanooga while batting three times with two strikeouts.

Two and a half hours to the east of Mathes’ complete game, a 26-year-old first baseman was busy collecting a pair of hits, scoring a run and driving in another to help the Round Rock Express get a 10-4 win in Nashville. J.R. House batted cleanup for the Express in that game, and while the Generals’ new manager would probably prefer his pitchers to hit more like him than Mathes, that’s far from his first concern at present.

Since their 53-run jetpack ride in the season-opening series with Birmingham, gravity has done a number on the Generals. They scored just 23 runs in a 4-1 series at Mobile, and the five-day crucible that followed against Montgomery gave Jackson a window to the opposite end of the spectrum. The Generals produced only 17 runs against the Biscuits, netting one victory in four games. Thursday night’s 9-5 loss was a difficult final note, going off key during an eight-run eighth inning for Montgomery. The fifth scheduled contested was postponed until May due to rain, denying the Generals a chance to end the series on a win.

To be fair, House’s team made many positive steps against Montgomery, a talented and detail-minded opponent. All of Jackson’s starting pitchers completed five innings, with none giving up more than three earned runs. Three of those arms (Josh Taylor, Brooks Hall, and Brad Keller) departed with a lead or while the game was tied; the fourth, Taylor Clarke, allowed just one earned run–on a bunt single–in a frustrating 1-0 loss. There was also a late-inning comeback, as the Generals rallied from a 7-3 deficit in the final two innings for a walk-off 8-7 win on Wednesday.

Michael Perez has started behind the plate in eight of the Generals’ 14 games, bringing some offensive punch to the lower third of the Jackson lineup. (Photo credit: Cody Cunningham)

The Generals’ search for consistency at the plate and in the bullpen looks like a continuing theme for the early part of the season. Montgomery scored nearly as many runs against the Generals’ relief corps (15) as the Generals scored overall in the series. Offensively, only three of the team’s twelve position players–Victor Reyes, Michael Perez, and reigning Southern League Player of the Week Colin Walsh–have batted over .300 in Jackson’s last 10 games.

The Biloxi series will be a stiff test for Jason Camilli’s hitters. The Shuckers’ staff features the second-best team ERA in the Southern League (2.59, as of Friday afternoon) and a league-leading 138 strikeouts, a rate of ten-and-a-half punch-outs every nine innings.

Generals right-hander Brooks Hall pitched for Biloxi in each of the last two seasons, so at least one General will recognize a few of the faces in the opposing dugout. Four Generals hitters on the active roster–Kevin Cron, Rudy Flores, Evan Marzilli, and Kevin Medrano–finished the 2016 season with on-base percentages of at least .300 against Biloxi, when each player suited up for the Mobile BayBears. Additionally, Jackson will be able to call on fresh muscle tomorrow night, with right-handed relief pitcher Daniel Gibson added to the roster on Friday afternoon in place of Drew Muren.

The pitching matchups for the series are listed below. You can hear each of the first four games of the series locally in Jackson on Radio Willie (94.1 and 94.3 FM, 1390 AM) and RadioWillie.com. Wednesday’s 10:35 am CT finale will be available only on the Jackson Generals Baseball Network, which you can find on the TuneIn Radio app (available for free download on most smartphones).

Make sure to get your tickets now to see the 20th season of professional baseball in Jackson, and the first for the team as an affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks! Call the team at (731) 988.5299, stop by The Ballpark or go online to jacksongeneralsbaseball.com to secure your seats now!